Sweet Dreams - SCREENSHOT: Asia

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh

Event Description:
SCREENSHOT: ASIA is a joint project from the Film and Media Studies Program and the Asian Studies Center that brings together students, faculty, and community members to create a shared awareness of Asian and Asian American experiences through contemporary film and media. Using film, video, and other on-screen arts, the series provides a forum to learn about Asian art, whether it is a classic work of cinema, a film by an emerging director, or a documentary addressing contemporary social concerns. The programming allows us to reflect on the importance of visual arts, current arts technology, and the place of cultural experiences in a global educational experience.

Film Description:
"Sweet Dreams is the utterly bizarre exploration of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia and the inescapable malaise it brings to one sugar plantation deep in the jungle. When the elderly plantation owner, Jan (Hans Dagelet), dies, Jan’s apathetic widow, Agathe (Renée Soutendijk), calls for her son and his pregnant wife to take control of the plantation, only to learn that everything has been left to Karel (Rio Den Haas), a boy with a white name and a brown face. While other family members vie to take control of the dying plantation, Karel’s mother, plantation housekeeper Siti (Hayati Azis) struggles to decide what is best for her son. The fraught and violent relationships among plantation owners, spurned family members and rebellious employees as each attempt to one up the other are by turns malevolent and absurd. Despite its absurdity, the film doesn’t make light of colonialism but shows us the ways that colonial oppression can seep into every aspect of life, penetrating colonist and colonial subject alike."